Blog

Imagine walking into a mechanic shop and saying, "I hear this knocking noise, and I read a few blog posts and watched a YouTube video about it, so if you could go ahead and change the serpentine belt and install a new radiator hose, I'll be on my way."

Similarly, imagine going to your doctor and saying, "I follow a few medical forums and talked with my friends about my chronic cough, I need you to schedule a lung transplant."

In both scenarios, the person coming to the professional is self-diagnosing. This happens a lot in our field of digital marketing.

Admittedly, I’ve been trying to overcome a bit of a writer’s block lately. It’s not for lack of ideas, because those have been swirling around in my brain at break-neck speeds. So why am I unable to sit down, pull open my editor and start writing? Well, I suppose it’s a number of reasons, maybe you can relate.

For those who are not used to writing, it can be an incredibly intimidating exercise. Writing is a solitary experience that leaves you alone with just you and your thoughts. Or, for the perfectionist, you and your judgments.

When I sit down to write I have to consciously and continuously remind myself to turn off my perfectionism. Perfectionism kills great work. It stifles collaboration and slows progress. Great ideas die everyday because their creators can't get past their own negative judgments and insecurities. Nothing is ever quite good enough to put out there.

I have a tendency to be late. I always have. People closest to me have come to expect the fact that I will be at least 5 minutes late to everything. I’m not exactly proud of this, and my lateness has, admittedly, caused some problems in my life with the consequences ranging from embarrassment, detention, missing out on key information or activities, missing classes, missing finals and one time in college, getting fired (but I’m pretty sure there was a conspiracy going on there…but I digress).

I was about to sit down and write one of those awkward press-release-style announcements. You know, the ones that start with “Inboun, Kansas City’s premier content marketing company, announces today…” (blah, blah, blah) These types of announcements are really boring to read, and even more painful to write, so that’s not going to happen. Instead, I’d like to just introduce myself.

People like to laugh. Our attention gravitates towards things that are funny. This makes sense when you consider laughter is the most basic behaviors we learn, right after crying. Companies market their products to grab people’s attention so consumers will pay money for it. If both of these statements are true, then it would only make sense that a company’s content and social media marketing tactics should include humor? This isn’t always the case, but it should be.

Content marketing isn’t the traditional way to go after customers, but if you ask us, it’s the way that works. Although it’s a more subtle approach to gain leads, it’s an effective one that people have started to notice. Content marketing has been gaining momentum over the past few years and is sure to surpass most of your other marketing strategies. Don’t let your business be left in the dust as the content marketing train speeds past.

You've been told time and again that your company needs a blog, but you still don't have one. Maybe you just don't see the point. Maybe you've never seen any hard evidence to justify running a company blog. Well, that's all about to change. Blogs, like many digital content marketing strategies is very measurable. But like most things, you must make sure that you know how to use the tools (or work with people who do) to achieve the right results. We've got the hard data to show you exactly why your company can no longer avoid starting a blog.

Hashtags are one of the top ways to get noticed on many social media sites, especially Twitter, which weighs in as one of the top three social media channels with over 500 million users. Often hashtags are simply the most-talked-about keywords created by Twitter users, but many other hashtags are strategically chosen by brands just like yours. However, not all hashtags are created equal. The best way to learn this is by learning from examples – good and bad. We’ll take a look at the biggest hashtag fails and how your brand can avoid hijacked hashtags.